


Sailing Softly Through the Sands

by KrystalMoon



Category: Labyrinth (1986), Strange Magic (2015), 魔法使いの嫁 | Mahou Tsukai no Yome | The Ancient Magus Bride
Genre: Archfae, Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition, Fae & Fairies, Magic, Multi, The Feywild
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-04
Updated: 2021-03-08
Packaged: 2021-03-17 11:13:52
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 8,078
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29840664
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KrystalMoon/pseuds/KrystalMoon
Summary: When someone is “wished away,” the wisher gets a chance to make things right. The Labyrinth can always tell what’s in their heart.But what happens to the abandoned “wished-aways?” They turn into Fae of course, as is the nature of the Feywild. But not everyone who is wished away is a child.Jareth has come to care for one such abandoned human, but something in his past haunts him, stopping him from letting himself fall in love.
Relationships: Bog King/Marianne (Strange Magic), Dawn/Sunny (Strange Magic), Jareth (Labyrinth)/Original Female Character(s), Oberon/Titania (Mahou Tsukai no Yome)





	1. The Before

**Author's Note:**

> TW: Some abuse suggestions
> 
> Also I’d like to mention that the narrator (main protagonist) is 18+

* * *

**The Before**

* * *

I don’t remember a lot of the time before.

I don’t even remember my old name or what I used to look like anymore. Probably for the better, honestly. The only memory I had of the time before was very dark and muddled.

The earliest memory that I can remember is the goblins surrounding me, cheering in delight. Even the chickens.

“It will be ok now, miss!” one of the goblins had said.

“You’ll be safe here. His Majesty is coming.”

I don’t remember if I said anything. I don’t think I even did. I remember shaking with violent shivers. I was scared, lost, and I felt alone and unwanted.

“It’s ok now, miss,” said another goblin. “Don’t cry. You’re here with us now.”

“Yea, we’ll take care of you!”

I do very distinctly remember backing away and crawling onto the nearest chair I could find. It looked stiff, but it was high. The goblins were terrifying me more. I wanted to get away, but I was in a strange place. I wanted to be left alone.

“Oh no.”

“Don’t sit there!”

“His majesty will be back soon.”

I ignored them, curling in on myself and hiding my face in my arms. There was too much noise.

My head hurt. I think I had hit myself a few times with the heel of my palm. I wanted quiet. I wanted to escape. I wanted to scream.

The noise ceased. I didn’t remember clutching at my ears, but I became aware of it when gentle but firm hands clasped my arms and pulled them away.

“That’s quite enough of that.”

It was a new voice. Not squeaky and rough like the goblins, but a soothing baritone. I remember looking up and being quite shocked, thinking that the man looked like an elf version of Howl from Studio Ghibli’s version of Howl’s Moving Castle. His face was feminine, sharp angled, his eyes were a glittering icy-blue with slitted pupils, and his nearly white blond-hair was extremely poofy. Two long and pointed ears which were pierced with two sapphire drops slid through that extremely blond hair, raising up a bit. I remember finding it odd that his ears moved at all.

“Aren’t you going to introduce yourself?” Howl-Elf asked. “Or were you planning to help yourself to my throne without even exchanging pleasantries?”

I did want to speak. I must have tried. I was embarrassed and I wanted to run away. I think I only managed to say, “sorry.” But I don’t think I even said that out loud, either. I must have tried to yank my arms free from his grasp because I distinctly remember thinking how I couldn’t move my arms out of his grip. He wasn’t holding my arms tightly, but they still wouldn’t budge. The little Goblins were starting to talk.

“His Majesty asked a question.”

“It’s rude to stare!”

“Shhh! Quit being bossy!”

I was starting to freak out again. I felt on the spot. I felt like everyone was mad at me. Whatever it was that had happened before that moment or however my life had been before was really bothering me.

“Quiet!” he shouted over his shoulder. The Goblins did as they were told nearly immediately. The grip loosened. I yanked myself free and tried to run, but he stopped my progress easily with an arm. He gently guided me back to sit on the throne. On his throne. “Pay them no mind. Forget them.”

His smile was gentle. Kind. I remember looking back into those eyes and feeling a wave of calm washing over me. I felt welcomed and comfortable.

I was so overwhelmed, I didn’t even make the conscious thought to hug him. My body just did it on its own. He seemed to not expect the movement and I felt him tense up. I let go as fast as I could and backed away. His face looked shocked, eyes were widened and distant, a crease setting between his angular brows. He was only like that for a moment before he seemed to snap out of it and looked down at me with a smile.

“Don’t apologize,” he said soothingly, his smile returning.

Had I? Maybe I did. I don’t remember. I don’t think I remembered if I did then either.

“On a more formal note,” Elf-Howl continued, looking serious. He sounded business-like. “How much do you know about Fae?”

“Fae… Like ‘Fairies?’” I had asked. I hate that I asked that, in retrospect. I knew about them before, I remember, but I wanted to be sure I understood right, I think. I knew they were in the chaotic spectrum, good, neutral, and evil. I knew there were courts. Some are mean. Some kinda nice ones that grant wishes but those always come with a cost. Like Rumpelstiltskin.

“I am an Archfae,” he said. “A king, of sorts. My kingdom is the kingdom of the unwanted and abandoned. You were wished away, so you have ended up here in my domain. I am Jareth. King of the Goblins.”

Jareth introduced himself, his kingdom, his purpose before he explained why I was there. Details of the conversation are fuzzy due to my lacking memory, but I distinctly remember him telling me that someone was running the Labyrinth for me.

That shocked me. I couldn’t move. I was frozen on the spot.

“If he makes it to my Castle, you can go back home.”

I remember crying immediately. I was scared again.

“Please! Don’t let him!” I think I screamed it. I certainly remember lashing out because my hand struck something painfully. I might have accidentally hit Jareth because the Goblins, who had been all quietly watching, started shouting loudly again. They sounded angry.

“I said, ‘quiet!’” Jareth snapped at them. “I am sorry, but I do have to give him a fighting chance. It is only fair.”

“No… No… Please…”

I don’t remember who “him” was or how he related to me. But I do remember something very, very bad had happened before. I remember preferring death over the possibility of returning.

A pair of leather-gloved hands cupped my face and forced me to look back into those blue calming eyes. Once more, I felt myself relax. I was hyperventilating, the quick gasps making me twitch a little. Jareth instructed me to hold my breath to his count.

“Good. Now listen to me,” he said firmly. “The Labyrinth is not an ordinary Labyrinth. It will perfectly read his heart. If there is good and pure intentions, he would make it here, if there are ill intentions, he will not. He was given thirteen hours to solve the Labyrinth.”

“Don’t even give him a minute of a chance!” I demanded, a hint of panic pushing against the heavy calm.

“This is my domain,” he said, his eyes hardening into a glare. “My rules. You will not tell  _ me  _ what to do, understood?”

I couldn’t speak. I couldn’t move to nod either because of his hands holding my face. His crystal blue eyes switched back and forth between mine a moment before his face relaxed back to a gentle look. He must have accepted my silence as understanding, of which I was thankful for.

“I am not such a stickler for formalities, but it would still be wise to remember that I am an Archfae, and while you are here I am your King.”

The next few hours I remember only vaguely. Jareth had some of the Goblins show me around the bottom floor of the castle. Grub, Stoop, and Pip, if I remember correctly, were the ones who showed me around.

All of the Goblins and even the Chickens were abandoned children once. The two hobgoblins had been teenagers, which was why they were bigger “and stupider” according to Pip. They were all a big family, though. The court Goblins were, anyway. The regular Goblins that lived outside the castle were larger and grumpier “and uglier” according to Pip. They had always been Goblins.

They took me to what looked like a huge mess hall with long tables. It was spotless. They asked me if I wanted food. I wasn’t hungry.

When we got back, Jareth was lounging in his throne watching the progress of the guy running the Labyrinth for me. Jareth smiled kindly at me and reassured me that everything would be ok. He held out his hand.

He had pulled me onto his lap. At first I was uncomfortable, as he was wearing an opened blouse of some kind, but after a bit I had completely relaxed against him. I was tired and he felt safe. I remember I started to fidget with his hair because some of it was on my face. It was soft and calming. He either didn’t notice or didn’t care. I though about how much I really didn’t want this to end. I started crying again out of fear and despair.

He pet my head gently, and whispered directly into my ear.

“Everything will be ok, precious. I promise.”

Then he started singing to me softly. I fell asleep for a little. When I woke up I still didn’t feel any better. For the remainder of the thirteen hours I was an emotional wreck of anxiety. Jareth was patient and kind about it. At some point we took a walk to a rather large garden. It was the entire expanse of a football field, I guessed, and he seemed quite pleased with it. He showed me some magic by making some flowers bloom.

“What is your favorite season?” he asked me out of nowhere.

“Uh… Winter.”

“Really?” He stared at me incredulously. I nodded in reply. “May I ask why?”

“I don’t know,” I shrugged and looked down at the pretty flowers. “I think the snow is really pretty when it’s covered everything, and when it’s frozen over it’s as if everything is covered in crystal, and it looks otherworldly beautiful. I prefer the cold over the hot, too. And you can build stuff out of snow. Plus… Thick blankets…” Thick blankets that feel like a hug.

Jareth was starting to pick up on when I’d gotten upset a lot faster then, and distracted me with a display of magic.

“It’s funny you say that Winter is your favorite,” he said gently, spreading his fingers wide. A group of flurries were produced out of thin air in a small space just above his hand. “Ironically, I am a Winter Court fae.”

“But you can make flowers bloom?”

In retrospect I’m glad Jareth was patient with my ignorance at the time.

“Of course,” he said smiling kindly. “I am not limited to one element.”

“But the winter court is part of the Unseelie courts.”

“Correct,” he said, looking at me with an expression I didn’t know the meaning of.

“Which means you don’t like humans.” I looked down at some of the flowers and started to fidget with my fingernails.

“Why does it bother you?” He didn’t sound angry. He almost sounded amused. I looked up but his expression was stoney and unreadable to me. I looked at my fingers as I tore at the tip of one of my fingernails.

“I’m human,” I said quietly. I had hoped he wouldn’t have heard me. But of course he did. He had long ears that probably could hear as well as a cat or even better.

Although, at the time he was silent for a moment. I refused to look up out of embarrassment. When I heard him sigh, I got my confirmation that he had, indeed, heard me.

“No. I do not like humans, generally speaking.”

I think that’s when it was most obvious to me that I had emotionally latched onto him. I berated myself internally for doing so for a minute before Jareth spoke again.

“You don’t need to be concerned if I like you or not, though. You wouldn’t be here if I didn’t.”

I knew he meant in a sense of care as much as a king would his subjects, which was flattering on its own, but I was emotionally compromised and was seeking a source of comfort to latch onto during a rather fragile time in my life.

I figured it wouldn’t hurt anything. Spoiler alert; it didn’t, just so you aren’t worried.

The guy that was running the Labyrinth… I never did find out what happened to him. I knew when the thirteen hours were up, but Jareth never told me what exactly went on. To be fair, I never asked.

As a sort of “present” for becoming part of the family, Jareth gave the gift of no longer remembering what my life was before. So to that end, I neither cared nor wanted to find out who or what happened to that guy.

All I know is I’m living the good life. Jareth spoils all of his little orphaned Goblins, but I am special. I think it could be that I was a lot older than what typically showed up here, but who knows. I didn’t really question it before.

But lately… I’ve been thinking about it a lot more...


	2. Don't Leave Me Alone

* * *

**Don't Leave Me Alone**

* * *

I woke up this morning a little slower than I normally did. I had my own room in the castle, which was unusual for a servant in the Goblin King’s court, but, as I had mentioned before, I was not treated like a goblin from the start. I even looked a lot different than the goblins, too.

I had smaller ears than Jareth, but they were pointed. My eyes were larger and far more green than I remembered. My hair was long and had a reddish tint to the brown that I never remember it having before, too. My face in general had become angular, and my teeth had gotten sharper. I had some fangs now, which took some getting used to. The thicker and longer canine teeth and the new angle of my jaw made me bite my cheek a few times during meals, but I’m slowly getting used to it. I also shrunk a bit. My ears were longer and pointed, though not quite as impressive as Jareth’s ears. I couldn’t move them like he could, either. I found that disappointing.

The first morning I got to the Goblin City after eating a strawberry (which I still wasn’t hungry for at the time even though it was my absolute favorite, but Jareth insisted upon it), I woke up like this and without any memory of my past life. With the freedom of rebirth, I started my new life tentatively hopeful. Jareth gave me the name “Alvytha,” since I couldn’t think of a new name for myself.

Usually, breakfast started the day. The throne room would slowly fill up during this time as most of the younger goblins and chicken-turned children would hover around this area not having other things to do. The older ones would busy themselves with things first before joining. Jareth never required any of us to do chores, but he didn’t seem to protest any help we have to the non-orphaned folk.

Usually, I’d go with my new friends, Grub, Stoop and Pip wherever they went.

Grub was the larger of the three, as he was a rather chubby Goblin named after his constant eating habits. Stoop was the tallest of the three, and seemed uncomfortable with her height as she would hunch a bit. Pip was the tiniest Goblin, not just out of the three friends, but in the entire court. He was barely up to my knee. 

Typically they would go cause mischief in the city, but sometimes they’d go swimming in the lake just before the tall tree forest.

Then lunch time would be a light meal whenever we wanted it. It was usually then that I’d opt instead for exploring the Labyrinth.

At first, Jareth had forbade me from entering the Labyrinth that surrounded the outskirts beyond the Goblin City, insisting I’d get lost, but eventually I managed to ask for his permission. I was the only one he allowed to roam into it. The Labyrinth was always different, every time I’d enter it. It always seemed to welcome me, too, like it was it’s own being. I certainly treated it like such. I would start going there and talking to it without any idea if the Labyrinth was listening or not. It could just be listening to my desires, because sometimes I’d mention I’d want something and I’d often turn a random corner and run into it.

Dinner was the only really big meal we all got together for. Sometimes Jareth would join us, if he were in the mood for it, but otherwise it was the whole court and some of the city goblins. Sometimes it ended up in a food fight which was great fun. The usual consequences of cleaning up after weren’t quite as bad as you’d think so either, as magic certainly made quick work of messes.

I had some small levels of magic. I felt mostly drawn to flowers and nature. Sometimes I could cause a flower to bloom, or a small branch to reach out a little and grow a new leaf. Jareth said I hadn’t found my medium yet, whatever that means. Once I found that my magic would grow exponentially, in theory.

Today was a little bit different.

Jareth was in a mood today. Usually it started off with him agitatedly pacing. We all knew to stay out of his way when he’d begin doing that. Eventually he’d disappear. Very few of us were allowed to bother him during these days. Either that, or very few of us were brave or stupid enough to try.

I honestly might be the only one.

The first time I saw him doing this it very much confused me. I was too scared to ask him what was happening because he seemed to be lost in thought and unaware of where he was walking. It felt like it would be rude to interrupt him. Then when he disappeared, I tried not to overthink it. But I often did.

Had I done something? I’d find elaborate ideas of what happened. I think the second or third time I ended up with spiraling thoughts, convinced that he would abandon me, and had run off into the Labyrinth. Or tried to. The Labyrinth seemed to be closed off to me that day.

Today I went to go look for him. I found him eventually sitting in a large window in a very crystal-decorated room. It didn’t occur to me that this was his personal room nor did I ever consider he even had one, though I’m not entirely sure why I didn’t think Jareth would have one. 

“Come and sit with me,” he said as he gestured to the window sill across from where he sat. He had completely ignored every apology that came out of my mouth as if I hadn’t said a word. “I could use a bit of company.”

As I walked over hesitantly, the door behind me shut on its own. I heard a clicking of a lock, and my anxiety began to make my mind wander to worries that I wasn’t sure why or where they came from. He seemed calm.

“I didn't mean to be rude,” I tried again.

“Alvytha…” His icy-blue eyes looked reproachfully at me. “Please stop apologizing, you did absolutely nothing wrong.”

“You’re not angry with me?” The question was out of my mouth before I could stop it.

“When have I ever been?” His expression was impossible for me to read. I shook my head in response, distracted by his blond hair and the fact that it only registered to me then that he had no shirt on. The only thing he wore on his upper half was his sickle shaped pendant. When I looked back up at his face, I noticed a change in his expression, though I didn’t have any context as to why it changed. His brows were more knit together, a crease more obvious between them, his head tilted a bit to the side.

“What?” I asked nervously.

“You’re staring at me and turning red,” he responded in a slightly amused soft tone.

“Sorry!” I covered my face in my hands and he chuckled in response.

“Stop apologizing,” he said. I could hear the grin in his voice. I swallowed my responding apology to that with some struggle. “I thought it was cute.”

_ Cute?  _ Didn’t Fae typically get mad if you stared at them?

He returned to looking out the window and we sat together in silence for a few moments. Eventually I stopped covering my face and calmed down, finding the view from Jareth’s window to be very pretty. I tried not to look down, but the window sill was fairly large so I couldn’t, nor wouldn’t, look over the edge to see how far the distance really was to the ground.

“Was something bothering you, or was there something you wanted to talk to me about?” Jareth wondered. It sounded like he had been reminded of something.

“I just noticed you seemed agitated earlier. I was curious where you disappear to, because the past few times you were like that you were gone all day.”

“Do you miss me when I do?”

His question confused me, and when I looked up, there was the unreadable expression on his face again. It seemed like a cross between confusion and curiosity, if I could name the one cocked-brow, his eyes widened slightly and interested.

“I do, yes… Sometimes I think it’s because I did something wrong…” I said quietly.

He frowned and shook his head.

“If you did do something wrong, you’d know straight away. Don’t ever worry about that.”

“Yes, your highness.” I bowed my head. “My deepest apologies.”

“Please, just…” Jareth shook his head and looked away. I looked up in time to see his face in a wince. “You don’t need to be so formal with me here. Or anywhere when it’s just you and me.”

Another moment of silence passed between us. Something else must have crossed his mind because he moved and got closer to me, leaning forward, he pressed a palm against the wall on the one side which blocked off any escape route I didn’t know I wanted until then. My throat went dry as I shrunk back against the wall, feeling trapped. My cheeks burned. I knew I had to be blushing.

“Alvytha…” he said in a tone I was unfamiliar with. “Please, stay here with me. Don’t leave me alone right now.”

I wasn’t leaving, though. I stared at him in confusion. Maybe I moved subconsciously and just didn’t really think about it. I looked down at my body and noticed that I had switched positions. My foot was now hanging down off the side when it wasn’t a minute ago. Also I was fidgeting again, this time with my hair. I let go and flattened my palms against my legs.

It seemed very unusual that Jareth was begging me to stay here and not leave. His beautifully blue eyes were emotionally charged and I wondered why he didn’t want to be alone. Seeing him like this made him look so child-like. Part of me wondered how old he was.

Before I really thought about the motion, my hands went to his face and softly touched his jaw line.

“J-Jareth,” I said softly, though ruined by my stutter over his name as it was outside my habit of talking to him through me off balance socially. “I’m not leaving. Not ever. Not as long as you’d want me here.”

His face seemed so warm, and his skin was really soft. I reminded myself that he wasn’t human, but that only increased my odd interest in his texture. Jareth closed his eyes.

“Do you want to stay?” he asked gently, opening them to look at me in an expressionless way. “You don’t have to keep me company if you don’t want to.” I was already nodding at him before he finished. He visibly relaxed at my reply. “Thank you.”

He stood up then and without warning me, picked me up effortlessly, as if he were just picking up a cat or a puppy. The next thing I knew, I had landed against something very comfortably soft. Jareth wrapped himself around me with his arms, laying almost completely on top of me. At first I felt uncomfortable, because I wasn’t mentally prepared for this at all, but after a moment I relaxed.

He was acting very off. Usually he was sarcastic, sassy, and had a very “alpha” sort of air about him. He was very dominant, for sure. He seemed to enjoy teasing the Goblins, and would pull small pranks on them. I had no doubt he had a cruel streak.

But he was acting differently. He seemed completely submissive. Clingy, maybe scared? Or maybe I had it wrong.

“Did you sleep at all last night?” I wondered. I always felt off whenever I didn’t sleep well. I knew this as a fact but I had no memory of my human life anymore to back that claim up.

“I don’t need to sleep,” he replied quietly. I felt his proximity to my neck through his breath and I was reminded of his sharp teeth. I wondered for a moment if he drank blood sometimes. He’s not a vampire, though. They didn’t seem like teeth for puncturing. They looked like they were better for tearing, I reminded myself. I started to play with his hair. It felt very soft and fluffy.

“I feel tired at night. Why is it that we need sleep but you don’t? You don’t even feel tired?”

“It’s only because I’m an Archfae. Most Fae need sleep. I get tired if I’ve expended a lot of magic and energy and I will need to replenish them. The best way to do so is sleeping, but I could sit down somewhere quiet and read a book and be just fine.” He adjusted his position to look down at me. He seemed amused. “Why do you ask? Do you want me to sleep with you?”

A bit of his sassy, sarcastic personality was leaking through his submissiveness.

“You just seem a bit different today. That’s all.”

His smirk slid off his face and he looked away from me though seemingly at nothing in particular. He was silent for a moment.

“How am I different?” he asked finally. His tone did not sound like he was curious. There was an almost offended note to it.

“You…I don’t know I’m just not used to you being informal.”

As it came out of my mouth, I thought back over the times when I’d get to talk to him. It was not a lot and my heart raced each time he’d acknowledge me. Sometimes it was just a smile, or if the Goblins were doing something amusing, sometimes he’d look over at me. There were two or three times he slid up to me and said something quietly so that only I could hear. Usually it was sarcastic, or a quiet joke between us about something the Goblins were doing. Once he caught me in the hallway alone and asked if I was doing ok. Come to think of it, he’s never been formal with me. Not when he was directly addressing me.

Now that I put it all together, I had to admit to myself that I had a crush on the Goblin King.

“Nevermind,” I said quietly. My heart was beginning to pound loudly and I could feel my cheeks burning. I knew he could hear the change in my heart rate quite fine. “I’m so-reef!”

Jareth covered my mouth with a hand and raised his angled eyebrows at me.

“Say you’re sorry again and I’ll give you a reason to be sorry…” he said in a playfully threatening tone, his eyes flashing mischievously.

He stared intensely into my eyes at such a close distance it made my cheeks burn hotter. He removed his hand with a playful smirk.

“You treat me differently than your other servants,” I started to say quietly. I wanted to follow up by asking “why” but his smirk slid so quickly off his face that I froze.

“You have never been a servant,” he said flatly. “I had never once demanded of you any duties. Any you did, you did them on your own. Over everyone in my castle, I treat you like a Princess. You are free to come and go within reason, and you have unlimited access to pretty much everywhere in my castle. Not to mention, you have your own room.”

“I…Have unlimited access…? I didn’t know.”

“You never asked.”

Jareth adjusted his position so he was hovering over me, a knee and hand on each side of me compressing the bed so I sank more in the cloud-like mattress, his hair falling over his shoulders and his face, nearly obscuring it. His pendant hung between us, swinging gently. Without thinking about it, almost reflexively, I caught it and examined it closely.

It was silver-colored with a small decorated circular gold-colored plate. It almost looked Celtic in design. I reminded myself that Jareth was half-naked as I looked at his shirtless torso.

“Jareth…?”

He looked down at me quizzically with his beautifully slanted, glittering ice-blue eyes. As I gazed into his eyes, I felt something connect with the inside of my chest. My heart fluttered in its cavity in response.

“I think I’m falling for you…” I said bluntly before I could think to stop myself.

He opened his mouth 

“Why?” His question was careful and guarded. The intensity of his gaze reminding me that I needed to choose my words very precisely. Fae were not the kind of creatures to mess around with. They could be very dangerous. This particular one straddled over me not only was presumably very powerful, but also I had absolutely no defense or time to react. “Because I look  _ pretty _ ?” His eyes flashed dangerously as he guessed at a response impatiently. I could practically feel the pressure of his anger in my chest just from the idea of that.

“I… Am not entirely sure,” I said, giving up and looking down at his pendant, uncomfortably fidgeting with it. The pressure feeling became more obvious and I realized that must actually be an effect of literal tension in the air coming from an Archfae. “It’s hard to describe. It's easy to say it’s because of how you look, because whenever I see you I feel.. Happy.” The pressure dropped immediately. “I’d like to attribute it more to feeling a connection between us more than simply enjoying how you look, but I have nothing to compare it to anymore since I have forgotten my human life.”

Jareth moved a hand slowly towards my face. It was only then that I noticed he only had four digits (three fingers and a thumb) rather than five like mine. His fingers were long and thin, and tipped with long, pointed fingernails. He gripped my chin and lifted my face up.

I wasn’t expecting the proximity of his face. His eyes were all I could look at. I felt my breathing quicken.

“Do you believe that you are in love with me?” He asked directly. His tone was layered with something that physically forced an answer out of me.

“Yes.”

I was confused. My tone sounded so flat and the answer came out so fast. He had already asked that question, more or less.

“Why are you in love with me?”

“You are more beautiful than anyone I’d ever met.”

I didn’t even think those words. I understood at that moment that he was using magic to force answers out of me.

“Mhmm. Thought so,” he snapped, letting go of my chin. His expression was dark and the pressure of his anger was returning.

“If you’re going to use magic to force answers out of me like that, at least ask me why I think you’re beautiful or what I think is beautiful,” I snapped.

He hesitated. At first I thought he was going to slap me for mouthing off, and I flinched when he reached towards my face again. I really don’t know why I did because the fae-male had never done that to me before. He yanked my chin back and stared back into my eyes at uncomfortable proximity.

“Why do you think I’m beautiful?”

“Your eyes are always kind and soft when you look into mine. Even now when you’re clearly angry with me… You are still looking at me like I’m somebody to you. When you smile, my heart flips in my chest to a point where it hurts…” I felt him let go and straighten up. I stood up. “You are good-looking, sure, but that’s not what makes you beautiful and you’d be a fool if you thought that. Beauty is not skin deep. Beauty goes all the way down to the soul. You  _ saved _ me and were there when  _ no one  _ else was. Do I know you perfectly? Not yet! But I want to! I want to know everything about you! Does that explain it for you?”

I didn’t realize until then that I had raised my voice. Jareth was staring down at me in shock.

“You didn’t use your magic that time…” I grumbled, crossing my arms grumpily.

“No,” he answered softly, smirking. “But I saw no lie in what you said…It’s my turn to apologize…”

“What? Why?” I looked at him in confusion.

“I’ve been hurt before. I was unfairly defensive.”

“Apology accepted, if you promise to tell me about it.”

He shook his head. “Some other time.”


	3. Strange Magic

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I didn’t just watch Strange Magic about 10 times in the last few days. Nope. Not me.

* * *

**Strange Magic**

* * *

Things only got more interesting as the weeks passed.

At first I tried to keep “us” a secret. But Jareth put an end to that immediately over dinner the next evening. I had sat down with Grub, Stoop, and Pip at the mess hall when Jareth walked in as he usually did. He came around to my seating and asked me to follow him. In front of everyone, he pulled a seat out for me next to his at the main table. I was embarrassed, but I forgot about it after a while of deep conversation with Jareth.

We would spend many hours talking. The more we talked, the more and more we got to know one another.

I was at a major disadvantage knowing nothing about my past, but fortunately that didn’t seem to be much of a problem. I became comfortable around him and would join him in his room to talk more until I passed out in his arms and he would join me as I explored the Labyrinth.

The only downside was that the goblins treated me a little differently. I was now “Lady Alvytha” and treated less like a friend. I found that a little depressing, but I still got to hang out with Grub, Stoop and Pip sometimes.

Today was a little bit different though. Jareth warned me we would be having royal visitors today. The goblins were all displaced to other parts of the castle, the throne unusually sparse besides a few guards and the mess hall was spotless. Food was ready as soon as the guests arrived. Jareth greeted them but also introduced them to me as they entered.

“My mother and father, High Queen Titania of the Seelie Courts and King Oberon of the Summer Court.”

Titania was a beautiful Archfae, like Jareth, with high cheekbones and slanted eyes. Similarities ended there. Her purple eyes and black hair stood out immensely. She wore a somewhat revealing dress. Oberon had a grin that resembled his son’s. He had deer horns and lower half, almost like a satyr, and his poofy green hair seemed a lot like Jareth’s except much longer. His eyes were as golden as the sun.

“King Puck of the spring court and his youngest daughter, Princess Dawn.”

Puck was an older looking Fae. Fat in the belly and grey haired. He had wings like a butterfly. Dawn looked nothing like her father. Her eyes were huge, rounded, and she had poofy bright blond hair. She had large monarch butterfly wings attached to her back. Behind her stumbled in a small Fae Jareth didn’t introduce me to. He was as tall as a Goblin but looked more elven. A gnome? He was dressed in far more casual wear than the others. He almost looked like a servant, but Titania and Oberon had brought none.

Jareth leaned in close, his lips so close to my ear I could feel them brush against it. “Sunny, the elf, is Dawn’s betrothed. He is not royalty by any means.”

So he doesn’t get an introduction? Jareth straightened.

“My brother, King Bog of the Fall court, and his betrothed, Princess Marianne.” Jareth leaned closer to my ear again. “King Puck’s oldest daughter.”

Jareth’s brother looked like a dragonfly. His wings clicked nervously as he and Marianne walked in with their arms linked. She looked absolutely stunning, like Lady Titania. Her hair was short and dyed darker than her roots suggested, and all around appeared to be a rebel. I’d almost thought I’d see some tattoos on her skin. Her purple emperor butterfly wings were folded more tightly than Dawns had been. She made eye contact with me a moment. They made an odd picture together and looked like they had nothing in common. I couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow at them.

The Bog King looked uncomfortably at Jareth for a moment. His eyes were blue, same color as Jareth’s but had round pupils. I could not find any other familial traits. He noticed my staring and he glanced at me.

Rude to stare.

“Got a problem?” Marianne challenged through clenched teeth, pointing at me. She was looking angry, her wings twitching out and back behind her as if she were going to take off in flight at me.

Jareth’s arm shot in front of me, pushing me back slightly. I looked up at him, he didn’t have a readable expression in his face, but he seemed to be warning me out of the corner of his eye.

“Marianne,” Bog said softly. “It’s ok.”

“No, it’s not!” she snapped. “I want to know what her problem is.”

“She doesn’t have a problem, Princess,” Jareth said calmly. “Please keep this civil.”

“Jareth introduced him as his brother, and I was looking for inherited traits that they may share so I could figure out if they were just friend-brothers or actual blood brothers.” I stumbled clumsily through my words. I had dropped my gaze to my feet uncomfortably. “I didn’t mean to stare.”

Jareth’s arm dropped around me and I felt him grab my left shoulder from behind and pull me against him.

There was a long moment of silence.

I looked up in time to see Bog gesturing for Marianne to keep moving, and Marianne made a noise in disgust and crossed her arms, storming a little as she walked forward. He stood a moment and watched her leave, his expression looked a bit worried.

He didn’t have hair, it looked like he had dead leaves on his head. He had armor that looked like it was just exoskeleton. When he moved his shoulder armor plates moved, too. He had four wings, like a dragonfly, and they glittered in rainbows in the light. He had small thorn-like spikes scattered sparsely along his lower legs and his prominent chin. His pointed ears were small, compared to Marianne and Jareth’s long pointed ones.

“If you don’t quit staring…” he growled warningly, his face sliding into one of anger, baring his uneven dangerously pointy teeth at me as he looked down at me slowly. I could hear a very strong Scottish accent, which was strange in this place.

“I can’t help it,” I said covering my eyes. “Everyone looks so pretty…”

“What?” Bog’s tone dropped into absolute confusion.

“We’ll talk later about this,” Jareth said quietly, with a heavy sigh.

After a moment, Jareth shook my shoulder slightly. I looked up at him and straightened, realizing that there were more guests coming.

“Erlking Madoc of the Unseelie Courts, and High King Oberon’s brother.”

Madoc was the tallest I’d seen so far. He stood a full head above Jareth, snow white hair spilling fluidly around his armored shoulders. Long ebony horns and his ebony spiky crown gave him a very dragon like appearance, his dark grey skin contrasting sharply with his white hair. His eyes were white. Even his pupils were hard to see. Was he blind? He looked nothing like Oberon.

“My sister, Queen Mab of the Winter Court.”

Very close behind him was a beautiful, tall woman with black hair and violet eyes. She seemed like a carbon copy of Titania, except her hair was poofy like Jareth and Oberon’s. She had long black nails, and her skin was almost as pale as Madoc’s hair.

She locked eyes with me.

“A human?” she said quietly, looking up at Jareth. “You intend to wed a human?”

_ He intends to what?! _

Madoc, who hadn’t been far ahead, heard the exchange and turned to stare at the both of us. I looked up at Jareth, but he seemed just as taken-aback as I was.

“I… Hadn’t even made any decisions yet,” Jareth bemused.

“Did I hear that she’s a human?” Madoc seemed disgusted.

“Not anymore,” Mab said, stepping closer to me. She squinted at me. “She looks like a wood elf now. The Feywild kindly granted her a beautiful form.” To me directly she said, “consider yourself lucky.”

“All fae are beautiful, though…” I replied, casting my gaze down nervously.

There was silence. Then Mab giggled.

“Believe it or not, Uncle Madoc, you, too, will fall for her. Don’t judge Jareth too harshly.”

I looked up in time to see Madoc staring in shock at Mab.

“I- what?” He looked back at me and frowned. Then he looked at Jareth, and back to Mab. _ “Fine.” _

He turned and left. Mab grinned at me and poked my nose lightly.

“We’ll be friends, don’t worry.” And then she left down the hall after Madoc.

Jareth waved his hand and the doors shut.

“Come,” he said briskly.

“Wait.”

He looked down at me with a guarded expression then continued down the hallway with intent of leaving me behind.

“Pay her or anything she says no mind,” he said coldly, more to himself than to me. “She is a banshee, they have precognitive senses but I’d say she’s lost her touch…”

“She said I’m a wood elf,” I said quietly. Jareth turned to face me again, his mouth opened slightly as if I had caught him mid mumble. “You said that Princess… Dawn I think? She was betrothed to an elf. Will I be that short?”

“He is a different type of elf. You are as short as you’ll ever be.”

I looked up at Jareth then at my hand before following him quietly into the mess hall, which was filled with polite idle chatter.

“What is all this for?” I asked the back of Jareth’s head. He turned to side eye me as he walked to his spot at the head table.

“It’s more of a polite family gathering,” he said gently.

Oh. I feel out of place.

I stopped walking and felt like everyone was staring at me, like a spotlight had suddenly turned on. But looking around, nobody was watching me at all. Except Jareth, who had stopped and turned more towards me.

“What’s wrong?”

I didn’t answer. I started to fidget with my hair. It felt soft and comforting. Jareth raised his gloved hand towards me. It seemed like he wanted me here, at least. I placed my hand in his and he smiled warmly at me before guiding me to sit on his right.

“So Queen Titania and King Oberon are married. They had you, Queen Mab, and King Bog… Princess Marianne is King Puck’s daughter, but he’s not part of the family yet, so why…? But also why am I here?”

“We are celebrating Bog and Marianne’s betrothal.” He leaned into my ear. “Bog is actually my older half brother. His mother, Griselda, was banned from family gatherings.”

“Why?” I asked bluntly.

“She is a wee bit opinionated for polite society.” At the familiar Scottish accent, I turned to look up at Bog and Marianne who were seating themselves to my right. Bog next to me and Marianne on his right. To Jareth he raised a leafy eyebrow. “Mab told us you are getting married?”

“Of course she is telling people that,” Jareth rolled his eyes and breathed out his nose in an irritated fashion.

“You know, I didn’t think her predictions would be right, either.” When Bog shrugged, his shoulder plates moved individually. Like an insect.

Jareth looked at him then shrugged, setting his jaw. I frowned.

Was the idea really that terrible?

There was silence as Titania, Oberon, and Madoc took places at the high table.

“How  _ did _ you two end up together?” Jareth wondered. “Was Mab completely correct? I seem to remember her prediction not being true.”

“Hmm…” Bog seemed to deliberate a moment. “Not in the way I thought, but in wording she was not incorrect.”

“I see.”

“I had thought she meant…” Bog sighed a bit and covered his face with a hand. “Something a bit different.”

Jareth peered quizzically at his brother. A goblin I never noticed entered appeared at his side.

“Shall we bring out the food, sire?”

“Yes, now would be a good time,” Jareth nodded. The goblin scampered off immediately.

“I used one of Sugar Plum’s primrose love potions on someone I shouldn’t have. I banned love from my kingdom completely because that blasted imp took the remaining potion and just… Created so much chaos…” He took his hand off his face and brushed the air as if waving away bad memories. “Then that idiot,” he said, gesturing to the short elf that Princess Dawn was hovering over. Marianne made a noise of protest, but Bog ignored it and continued on as if he didn’t hear her, “found a primrose petal and brought it to Sugar Plum so he could get a primrose love potion and then lost it to that bloody imp.

“I came a wee too late, snagged Princess Dawn in hopes to bargain her for the potion back so I could properly get rid of it. She,” he gestured at Marianne with a pointy thumb. “Comes flying in through my window, we fight until both of us are too exhausted, then my mother decides to shut us both in some weird valentine decorated room… And then we got to talking.”

“Don’t forget, more fighting,” Marianne added grumpily, moving out of the way as a few Goblins ran around placing silverware and plates down. “And your castle getting destroyed.”

“Yes, well…” he rubbed the back of his neck, his wings twitching nervously. “That’s not import-.”

“What do you mean?” Marianne fired up. “Not important? You almost died.”

“That’s not what I meant…” He leaned back in his chair crookedly, facing her, his hands raised in defense of innocence. She looked at him quietly before throwing her hands up a little into a shrug and grabbed a drum off of what looked like a turkey.

“I was right though!” Mab said sitting down on the other side of Marianne. “‘Use the primrose potion. You will find your true love after it’s chaos.’”

“It was very open ended, to be fair,” Jareth stated blandly.

“Hmph. Well I’d like to see you predict the future, Jareth…”

“Sure, I’ll do it now.” He cleared his throat and gestured as dramatically as he spoke next, “I predict that we shall dine upon this feast in the next few moments.”

“That doesn’t count. We are already eating…” Mab said crossly.

He shook his head, grinning, then took a ladle and filled a bowl with stew and placed it in front of me.

“Eat, precious,” he said softly to me, pointing at it. “I can hear your stomach growling.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I didn’t lie. I watched Strange Magic closer to 15 times.


End file.
